1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pad holders, and in particular holders designed specifically to hold pads of self-sticking note paper.
2. The Prior Art Background
The self-stick pad, such as those sold under the trademark "Post-it" owned by 3M, which is now well-known was introduced in the late 1970's by 3M, after development of over a decade.
Post-it notes have gained almost universal, wide-spread acceptance and are currently utilized in a multitude of situations for a multitude of uses. However, some difficulty has been experienced when writing on the self-stick note pads. The pad alone presents a small unsecured surface. It is often difficult to write on the small note pad. The note pad can move about as the user attempts to scroll his message upon it. Movement of the pad can be curtailed by holding the pad with a non-writing hand, however, this ties up both hands when writing a note. As those notes are often utilized to take phone messages or while performing other tasks which require the user to utilize his free hand to hold the phone or perform an accompanying task, it is often inconvenient if not impossible to hold the note pad with the user's other hand.
As a first attempt to control a self-stick note pad, users would often remove the non-adhesive back sheet which comes with the pad and stick the pad down to a desk surface or other convenient surface utilizing the stickem of the bottom sheet to immobilize the pad.
Also, a number of note pad holders have been introduced in an attempt to create a means for securing the note pad. The note holders prior to the present invention fall short of providing satisfactory securing of the note pad. The holders often utilize the stickiness of the final sheet to keep the note pad in place within the note pad holder. Additionally, the note pad holders are weighted so that they will stay immobilized on a desk top surface without the need to be held by the user, however, this often renders the holders undesirably bulky.
These note holders can provide a temporary solution to immobilizing the sticky note pad, however, after a short period of time the stickiness of the bottom exposed sheet will give way and the note pad will once again become mobile. The bottom sheet can again be removed and the pad stuck down again, however, this is a solution which must again and again be implemented and which provides only temporary relief for the mobility of the pad. So far, the industry has not been able to develop, devise or provide a note pad holder which will provide secure adequate immobilization of the note pad over a significant period of time with any degree of reliability.
Because of the inability to provide effective utilization of the pads, a number of dramatic restrictions in the market of self-stick notes has plagued the industry. A comparison between the present uses of self-stick notes and the existing uses of non-stick note pads demonstrates that the use of self-stick note pads has been limited.
Self-stick note pads and non-stick note pads are constructed in a significantly different manner. Self-stick note pads are held together solely by the stripe of semi-adhesive on the top back of each page. Non-stick note pads are held together by a wide band of adhesive across the top of each page which usually also bonds a rigid piece of cardboard to the back or spine of the pad.
Due to these differences in construction, it has proved much more difficult to provide a suitable holder for self-stick note pads. There is no hard cardboard back to use as a mounting member and a self-stick note pad can easily come apart if placed in the wrong type of holder or mounted in an inappropriate manner.
Note holders have been designed which include a pocket for insertion of the back flat of the self-stick note pad, however, the adhesive of the pages of the pad have proved to be of insufficient strength to maintain the remainder of the pad adhered to the back sheet and the pad will often fall from the holder.
No note pad holder developed which relies upon the stickiness of the self-stick glue utilized to hold the pages together has been able to provide any sort of mounting at an angle, all of these holders necessarily holding and mounting the pad either flat or at a very slight angle to horizontal. When tilted at any significant angle, the note pad separates and falls from the holder, the weight of the note pad alone overcoming the adhesiveness of the self-stick glue. Having a bulky or weighted note holder which must orient the pad horizontally or near to a horizontal position provides for difficult writing on the pad as the pad is at a level above the level of the desk requiring an unnatural arch of the hand in order to write on the pad.